EA debuts a Sims social game

Electronic Arts announced today that it is releasing a new social game for Facebook that is built off its popular life simulation game, The Sims. The company made the presentation at the Electronic Entertainment Expo today in Los Angeles, Calif.

If the game, called The Sims Social, is even half as popular as the typical Sims games on the personal computer, it will give popular social games on Facebook a run for their money. That includes the likes of Zynga’s Cityville and Farmville, which EA took a crack at on stage. The Sims Social lets players create a Sim — a virtual individual — for themselves and others and then lets them play along with Sims built by their friends.

EA bought Playfish in 2009 to expand its reach into social games, but it looks like The Sims Social is built by the Sims team rather than EA’s new social gaming team. The company didn’t give a specific date when the game would be available on Facebook, but it looked pretty far along judging by the demonstration.

The Sims franchise is wildly popular with more mainstream audiences than typical computer games. Players take control of individuals and families and decide how they live their lives — right down to when they use the bathroom and what clothes they wear. Or, you know, anything more sinister than that. We won’t judge.

Be sure to check out VentureBeat for wall-to-wall coverage of E3 this week.